


Forbidden Forest

by OccupationLove



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Human, Fantasy Realm, Gen, How They Met, Theft, cleric!sweden, if i had more time or energy I'd write more for this, kind of cliffhangery, maybe i'll come back for it eventually, mercenary!denmark, royal guard!finland, summoner!Norway, the beginning of some sort of wild adventure, the nordic five, this forest is cursed, this reads like a prologue, to be fair they were warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 10:39:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15117635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OccupationLove/pseuds/OccupationLove
Summary: Matthias just wanted to be paid a reasonable amount of compensation for his work; it wasn't his fault that the townspeople didn't realize how valuable he was. Tino just wanted to have a peaceful day guarding the castle; he definitely didn't want to follow a thief through a forest known for disappearances. Little did either of them know what they were getting themselves or their companions into.





	Forbidden Forest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shirokage218](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shirokage218/gifts).



> Okay so this story is a trip and there is little to no explanation going on because it's written like it's the start of a chapter story. And it might be someday but I don't have time for that right now.  
> Anyway! I hope you liked this Shiro! <3

Matthias’s ax collided with the cold forest floor with as he ran, tearing shreds into the frozen landscape. He could see his breath clouding in front of more and more clearly with every passing second as the sun sunk over the horizon. His lungs were starting to burn and he couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across his face. It always ended like this; why did it always end like this?

Because life was too short to waste it conforming to  _ rules. _

He slowed down and came to a complete stop in a clearing just as darkness fully settled on the world around him. He laughed, loud and boisterous; they wouldn’t chance following him now, not into the forbidden forest after dark. Superstitious townspeople, it was too bad they never wanted to pay full price for his services.

Honestly, what kind of person only paid you 50 sovereigns to slay a  _ dragon _ . Personally, Matthias and the burn on his back thought that was worth at least 70 of the gold coins.

He fiddled with the bag containing his payment before redirecting his attention to the locket he had taken off of the desk. From the way it glittered in the dark, it had to be worth something, maybe even enough to avoid another campaign for a while. Or maybe he could buy a new ax. 

Speaking of which, Matthias removed the weapon from his back to glance over the blade. Fortunately, it seemed he hadn’t done an extreme amount of damage to it by allowing it to hit the ground. It would be terrible if he had, after all, his blade was his livelihood.

“Messed it up again, didn’t you?”

Matthias puffed his cheeks out in minor annoyance but didn’t look for the source of the voice. He knew the other would be cloaked in shadow.

“Lukas! Don’t be like that!”

He heard a scoff before he saw the minute shift of movement in the trees in from of him, “You had to run didn’t you?”

Matthias threw his hands skyward, “Yes but only because they wouldn’t pay me what I was owed.”

Almost immediately the forest floor around him lit up with the floating green “fairy” lights that his friend controlled, “What do you have?”

Lukas sounded almost alarmed from his spot just at the edge of the clearing; he had never heard him sound like that before, “What?”

His friend launched himself toward Matthias looking somewhere between fascinated and afraid, “What do you have?!”

It was then that he realized the shorter man was reaching for the locket caught in his fingers, “Oh. This? I took it from the town to the west to make up for the coin they refused to pay me.”

Lukas reached for it slowly his face taking on a calmer expression--he must have realized he looked excited--but his eyes were still twinkling from the lights’ reflections, “This is magic.”

He blinked before squinting at the piece of jewelry, “It is?”

His friend nodded, fingers brushing over the glittering metal just before everything went black.

* * *

 

To be quite honest, Tino was getting somewhat frustrated at these town burglaries and these mercenaries believing they had every right to other people’s belongings. But also if he was being completely truthful he was a little frightened that the guard had sent him, of all people, to deal with it. Sure, he was trained for it but did he  _ really _ need to track down the guy that had run into the forbidden forest?

Was it absolutely necessary?

His traveling companion wasn’t making him feel any better about the situation. The fact that the royal guard thought that he’d need a healer--not just a healer but the number one cleric in the castle--was concerning. And Tino was starting to get used to the taller man looming over him all the time but that didn’t change the fact that Berwald looked entirely done with the idea of being there.

Tino might actually have been more afraid of Berwald than he was of going into the forbidden forest. He rested his hand against the hilt of his sword to help calm his nerves, “So, have you ever been in the forest before?”

Berwald blue eyes darted over to his face looking almost angry, “No.”

He let out a shaky laugh, “Me, neither! Are you ready?”  
Berwald redirected his gaze to the edge of the trees but only gave a grunt in response to the question. Tino sighed, resigned to his fate, “Me, neither.”

They had waited until daylight to attempt the mission but that didn’t change the fact that the forest was known to swallow people up, never to be seen again. It was amazing what fear could do to years of training in the guard. Almost every change in the breeze or shift in the leaves had Tino jumping. Yet, even after walking several hundred feet into the trees nothing actually dangerous or terrifying had presented itself. 

“It’s peaceful.”

Tino wasn’t expecting Berwald to speak up so suddenly and squeaked-- _ squeaked _ \-- before nodding his head in agreement, “Why is it forbidden again?”

“It’s dangerous.”

“Okay…”

He wasn’t sure that was entirely true at this point, actually. Regardless, he didn’t come to debunk the "forbidden-ness" of the area, he only wanted to find this mercenary thief and retrieve the necklace he had stolen. Maybe it wouldn’t be as hard as he thought.

Wait.

Was that…?  

It really wouldn’t be as hard as he thought. Just twenty feet ahead of them, a man fitting the description the villagers had given was lying in a clearing next to another man. Both were holding what looked like opposite ends of a silver chain in one of their hands. Two weapons--an ax and a mage’s staff-- were laid above their heads, almost as if they had been purposefully removed.

“I do not understand how you get yourself in so much trouble.”

The words were said by someone he didn’t know slowly walking into the clearing with some wet cloths. The man could not have been much more than a teenager and had a worried look etched into his face, “I told you not to be so stubborn but you just had to come out here didn’t you?”

He sighed and Tino took the opportunity to draw his sword and level it towards the boy, “Who are you?”

The boy jumped and dropped the cloths in his hand, “I’m Emil! Who--Who are you?”

Tino forced on his brave face and started advancing toward the two people on the ground, “I’m here to pick up what was stolen.”

Emil glanced at the locket in their hands, “Nothing was stolen! It belongs to my brother!”

Tino lunged for the chain, “That’s not what the villagers say!”

Within seconds he had fished the necklace out of their grasp and was backing away with it in hand. Emil, however, lunged at him, “It’s not yours! You can’t have that!”

Emil’s hand wrapped around a loose part of the chain as he dug his heels into the frozen ground in an attempt to combat Tino’s retrieval.  Tino pulled the necklace toward his chest, “This was stolen from a village nearby. It is not your brother’s”

Emil shook his head, “It is my brother’s.”  
  
At that moment, Tino saw Berwald reach for the last part of the chain that was exposed, obviously attempting to help his smaller companion obtain what they came for. But the second his hand touched it, Tino felt a small jolt and everything faded out of view.

* * *

 

“Are you sure the locket was magic?”

“Yes, you dumbass, how do you think we got here?”

“Got where? We’re still exactly where we were before.”

“The locket is gone.”

“And? Don’t you make things disappear all the time?”

“No, I specialize in summoning magic you ass. I don’t think I’ve ever made anything successfully disappear.”

“What about my favorite shirt when we were six? You made that disappear.”

“No, I burned it.”

“Lukas!”

“That’s not the point. The necklace is gone so either we’re somewhere else or it disintegrated and I’m willing to bet it’s the first one.”

Matthias crossed his arms still skeptical, “And what makes you say that.”

Just to the left of him, there was a loud hissing sound and then three people appeared out of nowhere, seemingly in some sort of conflict. One of them looked like he had previously been holding a weapon of some sort. 

Wait. 

Matthias spun around suddenly noticing the lack of weight on his back. Where in the hell did his ax go? Lukas gestured irritatedly at the new arrivals, “I don’t know maybe the fact that these guys just materialized in front of us?”  
  
Emil turned around almost as fast he had lunged at the weird man trying to take the necklace, “Lukas!”

Lukas blinked before getting a look of mischief in his eyes, “Ah. Emil, I’m glad you could come and help out your big brother. Come on, now. Were you  _ worried _ about me? Such a cute kid.”

His younger brother’s face turned bright red as he stomped his foot, “Sh-shut up! I was just trying to protect your necklace”

“Wasn’t mine. This dumbass stole it.”

Tino raised his sword to...wait...Tino jumped forward in an attempt to detain the man the other had pointed at. Instead, he found himself wrestled to the ground with the man looking almost feral on top of him. A shiver ran down his spine and Berwald pulled the other man off of him, picking him up in the process. Matthias flailed, desperately attempting to squirm out of his grasp, “Let go!”

Berwald grunted in response but did not loosen his grasp. 

“Hey--,” Lukas started.

“You  _ stole  _ from the very people that provide you meals! Where is your decency?”

“Where’s the decency in not paying me enough to survive on, huh?”

“50 gold coins is plenty!”

“Hey, we should--”

“Not if you’ve got injuries from the fight!”

“Maybe you should’ve been more careful.”

“Do you know how big a damn dragon is? I did them a favor!”

“You robbed--”  
  
“HEY!”  
  
Tino and Matthias stopped shouting at each other if only for a moment, “What?”

Lukas swept his arms around him in a circular motion, “Something feels off in this forest. We should probably leave before we find out what.”

Suddenly, Berwald dropped Matthias who fell straight onto his knees. He nodded his head and began moving toward Tino in an almost protective manner, “Close by.”

Tino looked around frantically, “What is?”

Berwald cast a glowing barrier around them all just before something with glowing red eyes swung down from the trees and bounced off of it. If they were all being honest, they definitely were not okay with the low growl coming from the creature. And to be fair they probably would’ve felt a lot safer with their weapons.

“Demons.”

Together they counted six more pairs of glowing eyes beyond the barrier. Perhaps they’d have to set aside their differences for now and focus on a bigger picture.

None of them wanted to die that day.

Fortunately, none of them did.

**Author's Note:**

> All kudos and comments are appreciated. Thank you for reading! <3


End file.
